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Transfer Euro from France to UK in GBP

I have around 100K euro saving in a bank account in France. I need to transfer this money in the UK in GBP in order to buy a property. What is the cheapest and most convenient service in order to do so? I do not want to get hit by the standard exchange rate my bank would apply with a simple bank transfer.

Hi, I would advise you to avoid transferring the Euros directly to your UK account as you will be subject to your bank's terrible conversion rates and fees.
I usually use Thomas Exchange www.thomasexchange.co.uk to send Euros from my German account back to the UK, they negotiate the funds into Sterling or you. They base their rates on live market rates - always much better than the banks.
Once your Euros have been received into their Euro account, they would contact you with the rate. Once you have booked a rate, they would then transfer the Sterling to your UK bank account as an urgent same day payment.
I would advise you to either ring them on 0207 493 1300 or email enquiries@thomasexchange.co.uk for more info. Once you are registered, they would provide you with their Euro bank account details.
They have been established since 1978 and I highly recommend them, I used to use my bank for these transactions and have now saved myself so much money using Thomas Exchange :)

The more I use currency brokers the more I am of the view that shopping around will get you the best deal. As said previously, I first started shopping around through www.mycurrencytransfer.com which is really just a useful comparison tool that has helped me open an account with both Travelex and Moneycorp. Once registered I could get live rate quote comparisons and by playing one off against the other was able to secure a brilliant rate.

I've learned today that http://www.rationalfx.com is doing a Happy Hour which will be kicking off today from 4PM until 5PM and will be doing currency conversions of USD/EUR & GBP/EUR AT WHOLESALE RATES!
In order to get in on this, you need to register and join their official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/rationalfx in order to see the password which you will need to quote by phone in order to be eligible for the offer.
You will have to register before making use of their services.
I would get in on this fast as no other service that i know of is doing this.

Hi we moved from france to uk. What we did with our bank in France which is banque palatine - and they were very good and have interbank rates which mirror market rates not like the rip-off banks here in uk where they charge typically well over 3% on market rate!
you can open a GBP account in your bank in France, talk to the bank - we got the current rate of that day from market to convert our euro to sterling. There was a 20-30 euro charge to transfer the money to uk and that was it - this was excellent in our opinion for a large amount (enough to buy a house) as the interbank fx rate was the exact same as the market rate. I've had bad experiences here -today santander quoted me following rate for today 16/4/2011 market rate 1.13 santander were giving 1.089!!!i.e. GBP/Euro...
I am now searching for reliable alternatives and found this post and want to find a FX broker or service which I can trust ....

I agree with simple comments above. If you want to move away from using a high street bank, it is increddibly important to check the credentials of the FX broker you will decide to go with. I would ask them: do you operate segregated client accounts / how long have you been in business / what is your annual transactional volume / are you not only FSA registered but also authorised. Quite a good shopping around tool I have found is a comparison site - www.mycurrencytransfer.com . Over the years, we have compared rates and typically cross between using Moneycorp, Currencies Direct, IFX and HIFX.

Hi Boulugre
Its a much better idea to use a currency broker as they will get you to transfer your Euros into a Euro account and then do the exchange so you can agree a rate. If you simply get the Bank to do this for you, then they will transfer the Euros into a GBP account, converting it at a standard daily rate and leaving you out of pocket
Make sure you use an FSA regulated broker - I have found [url=http://www.currenciesdirect.com]www.currenciesdirect.com[/url], [url=http://www.currencyuk.co.uk]www.currencyuk.co.uk[/url] and [url=http://www.moneycorp.com]www.moneycorp.com[/url] to offer the best service and rates

Hi, I would advise you to avoid transferring the Euros directly to your UK account as you will be subject to your bank's terrible conversion rates and fees.
I usually use Thomas Exchange www.thomasexchange.co.uk to send Euros from my German account back to the UK, they negotiate the funds into Sterling or you. They base their rates on live market rates - always much better than the banks.
Once your Euros have been received into their Euro account, they would contact you with the rate. Once you have booked a rate, they would then transfer the Sterling to your UK bank account as an urgent same day payment.
I would advise you to either ring them on 0207 493 1300 or email enquiries@thomasexchange.co.uk for more info. Once you are registered, they would provide you with their Euro bank account details.
They have been established since 1978 and I highly recommend them, I used to use my bank for these transactions and have now saved myself so much money using Thomas Exchange :)

The more I use currency brokers the more I am of the view that shopping around will get you the best deal. As said previously, I first started shopping around through www.mycurrencytransfer.com which is really just a useful comparison tool that has helped me open an account with both Travelex and Moneycorp. Once registered I could get live rate quote comparisons and by playing one off against the other was able to secure a brilliant rate.

I've learned today that http://www.rationalfx.com is doing a Happy Hour which will be kicking off today from 4PM until 5PM and will be doing currency conversions of USD/EUR & GBP/EUR AT WHOLESALE RATES!
In order to get in on this, you need to register and join their official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/rationalfx in order to see the password which you will need to quote by phone in order to be eligible for the offer.
You will have to register before making use of their services.
I would get in on this fast as no other service that i know of is doing this.

Hi we moved from france to uk. What we did with our bank in France which is banque palatine - and they were very good and have interbank rates which mirror market rates not like the rip-off banks here in uk where they charge typically well over 3% on market rate!
you can open a GBP account in your bank in France, talk to the bank - we got the current rate of that day from market to convert our euro to sterling. There was a 20-30 euro charge to transfer the money to uk and that was it - this was excellent in our opinion for a large amount (enough to buy a house) as the interbank fx rate was the exact same as the market rate. I've had bad experiences here -today santander quoted me following rate for today 16/4/2011 market rate 1.13 santander were giving 1.089!!!i.e. GBP/Euro...
I am now searching for reliable alternatives and found this post and want to find a FX broker or service which I can trust ....

I agree with simple comments above. If you want to move away from using a high street bank, it is increddibly important to check the credentials of the FX broker you will decide to go with. I would ask them: do you operate segregated client accounts / how long have you been in business / what is your annual transactional volume / are you not only FSA registered but also authorised. Quite a good shopping around tool I have found is a comparison site - www.mycurrencytransfer.com . Over the years, we have compared rates and typically cross between using Moneycorp, Currencies Direct, IFX and HIFX.

Hi Boulugre
Its a much better idea to use a currency broker as they will get you to transfer your Euros into a Euro account and then do the exchange so you can agree a rate. If you simply get the Bank to do this for you, then they will transfer the Euros into a GBP account, converting it at a standard daily rate and leaving you out of pocket
Make sure you use an FSA regulated broker - I have found [url=http://www.currenciesdirect.com]www.currenciesdirect.com[/url], [url=http://www.currencyuk.co.uk]www.currencyuk.co.uk[/url] and [url=http://www.moneycorp.com]www.moneycorp.com[/url] to offer the best service and rates

Hi Boulugre
Its a much better idea to use a currency broker as they will get you to transfer your Euros into a Euro account and then do the exchange so you can agree a rate. If you simply get the Bank to do this for you, then they will transfer the Euros into a GBP account, converting it at a standard daily rate and leaving you out of pocket
Make sure you use an FSA regulated broker - I have found [url=http://www.currenciesdirect.com]www.currenciesdirect.com[/url], [url=http://www.currencyuk.co.uk]www.currencyuk.co.uk[/url] and [url=http://www.moneycorp.com]www.moneycorp.com[/url] to offer the best service and rates

I agree with simple comments above. If you want to move away from using a high street bank, it is increddibly important to check the credentials of the FX broker you will decide to go with. I would ask them: do you operate segregated client accounts / how long have you been in business / what is your annual transactional volume / are you not only FSA registered but also authorised. Quite a good shopping around tool I have found is a comparison site - www.mycurrencytransfer.com . Over the years, we have compared rates and typically cross between using Moneycorp, Currencies Direct, IFX and HIFX.

Hi we moved from france to uk. What we did with our bank in France which is banque palatine - and they were very good and have interbank rates which mirror market rates not like the rip-off banks here in uk where they charge typically well over 3% on market rate!
you can open a GBP account in your bank in France, talk to the bank - we got the current rate of that day from market to convert our euro to sterling. There was a 20-30 euro charge to transfer the money to uk and that was it - this was excellent in our opinion for a large amount (enough to buy a house) as the interbank fx rate was the exact same as the market rate. I've had bad experiences here -today santander quoted me following rate for today 16/4/2011 market rate 1.13 santander were giving 1.089!!!i.e. GBP/Euro...
I am now searching for reliable alternatives and found this post and want to find a FX broker or service which I can trust ....

I've learned today that http://www.rationalfx.com is doing a Happy Hour which will be kicking off today from 4PM until 5PM and will be doing currency conversions of USD/EUR & GBP/EUR AT WHOLESALE RATES!
In order to get in on this, you need to register and join their official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/rationalfx in order to see the password which you will need to quote by phone in order to be eligible for the offer.
You will have to register before making use of their services.
I would get in on this fast as no other service that i know of is doing this.

The more I use currency brokers the more I am of the view that shopping around will get you the best deal. As said previously, I first started shopping around through www.mycurrencytransfer.com which is really just a useful comparison tool that has helped me open an account with both Travelex and Moneycorp. Once registered I could get live rate quote comparisons and by playing one off against the other was able to secure a brilliant rate.

Hi, I would advise you to avoid transferring the Euros directly to your UK account as you will be subject to your bank's terrible conversion rates and fees.
I usually use Thomas Exchange www.thomasexchange.co.uk to send Euros from my German account back to the UK, they negotiate the funds into Sterling or you. They base their rates on live market rates - always much better than the banks.
Once your Euros have been received into their Euro account, they would contact you with the rate. Once you have booked a rate, they would then transfer the Sterling to your UK bank account as an urgent same day payment.
I would advise you to either ring them on 0207 493 1300 or email enquiries@thomasexchange.co.uk for more info. Once you are registered, they would provide you with their Euro bank account details.
They have been established since 1978 and I highly recommend them, I used to use my bank for these transactions and have now saved myself so much money using Thomas Exchange :)